I've had a computer my whole life. The thing was it was my "dad's" and "very expensive" and children werent allowed to "touch it."
It was one of these:
Then when I was 13 and it had been in garage, packed away since I was 8, I got all the parts together and got it running. Unfortunately the floppy drive was broke, so you couldnt boot it. Thing about the original PC though was that even if you /couldnt/ boot it, it had a BASIC rom mode. So I couldnt play at programming tons.
Eventually I found a Commodore PC clone with an ST-506? 5 inch drive to replace it. Could finally boot to DOS 3.1, which was awesome, for awhile.
It was an original 5150 with a monochrome screen and MDA video card which meant, no graphics mode. So I would make prime number programs and crap...
Finally after "proving" I was interested in computers (by being able to write machine code and make that thing do just about ANYTHING, I got a MASM assembler at some point which I thought was GREAT because I didnt have to constantly do hex math). I got this super crappy compaq with Windows 98 on it and dialup internets.
I think it the power supply on it finally died but I dont have it anymore. I still love the keyboard feel of the IBMs though, double click keys are great for touch typing cause you dont have to mash them.
Edit: More details.
First text editor on that was Brief by Underware (real thing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief_(text_editor) )
My dad is an EE, he bought the computer when he worked at Xerox in the early '80s. I think at the time he was part of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star development. Not the computer but the full office system. There were tons of computer engineering books in my house, which is about as applicable to actually using a computer as physics is to swimming. I remember trying to figure out how to apply all this stuff to windows, which was futile, and protected memory pretty much ended my programming interest. Then I started playing sports more and lost interest in much else aside from games until I was 17.
It was one of these:
Then when I was 13 and it had been in garage, packed away since I was 8, I got all the parts together and got it running. Unfortunately the floppy drive was broke, so you couldnt boot it. Thing about the original PC though was that even if you /couldnt/ boot it, it had a BASIC rom mode. So I couldnt play at programming tons.
Eventually I found a Commodore PC clone with an ST-506? 5 inch drive to replace it. Could finally boot to DOS 3.1, which was awesome, for awhile.
It was an original 5150 with a monochrome screen and MDA video card which meant, no graphics mode. So I would make prime number programs and crap...
Finally after "proving" I was interested in computers (by being able to write machine code and make that thing do just about ANYTHING, I got a MASM assembler at some point which I thought was GREAT because I didnt have to constantly do hex math). I got this super crappy compaq with Windows 98 on it and dialup internets.
I think it the power supply on it finally died but I dont have it anymore. I still love the keyboard feel of the IBMs though, double click keys are great for touch typing cause you dont have to mash them.
Edit: More details.
First text editor on that was Brief by Underware (real thing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief_(text_editor) )
My dad is an EE, he bought the computer when he worked at Xerox in the early '80s. I think at the time he was part of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star development. Not the computer but the full office system. There were tons of computer engineering books in my house, which is about as applicable to actually using a computer as physics is to swimming. I remember trying to figure out how to apply all this stuff to windows, which was futile, and protected memory pretty much ended my programming interest. Then I started playing sports more and lost interest in much else aside from games until I was 17.
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